Practitioner analysts Tony Uphoff and Tom Smith are on-site at the ServiceNow Knowledge24 event in Las Vegas. In this roundtable, they discuss major takeaways with Bob Evans and John Siefert, including the excitement surrounding Bill McDermott’s leadership and ServiceNow’s ambitious revenue goals, along with its aspiration to be the “platform of platforms.”
Highlights
Excitement at Knowledge (00:13)
The team is hard-pressed to remember a CEO who has been able to express the level of enthusiasm, optimism, and sheer ambition it’s seeing from Bill McDermott right now. It’s difficult to lead a company of this size from out in front. ServiceNow has a clear path to $15 billion in revenue by 2026.
ServiceNow aspires to be the platform of platforms. At Knowledge24, there are customer examples such as British Telecom and JP Morgan Chase. These are absolute marquee, massive customers consolidating hundreds of platforms into ServiceNow.
A New Partnership with Microsoft (03:00)
With the Now Assist platform, there has been a ton of energy around not only its generative AI aspect but also the new proactive approaches being taken with the platform, as well as some partnerships.
There’s a big new partnership with Microsoft that integrates Now Assist with Microsoft Copilot. So, those two GenAI systems can speak to each other and share data in context in a workflow context. So if you’re in Microsoft Copilot in teams, you can get data from Now Analysis; if you’re in Now Analysis, you can launch Copilot. Bob thinks more and more, we’re going see the big tech companies say, “Let’s go together here, and it will create more value for us, and especially more value for customers.”
Visionary Partnerships and AI Integration (06:50)
Tony spent time with the AWS VP of GenAI Pursuits, Scott Rosecrans, and also Asish Ramchandran, who heads up the Deloitte partnership. It was fascinating to listen to these leaders talk about the role of GenAI in the platform and the partnership itself.
A CEO shared a compelling story; although he didn’t disclose the company’s name, he did mention it was a German auto company. He recounted how it’s leveraging ServiceNow and driving transformation within this auto company. It exemplified the potency of a deep vertical focus combined with classic strategy consulting, alongside a highly robust platform — arguably the platform of platforms.
Bill McDermott’s Optimistic Vision (09:37)
It’s Tom’s first time at the event and his initial exposure to Bill McDermott, and he was struck by his level of bullishness, optimism, and confidence. Bill McDermott was asked who ServiceNow competes with and whether it is looking to replace all these platforms. His response was along the lines of, “We can coexist with them.” But it was pretty clear, he believes that ultimately ServiceNow will be replacing those platforms.
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A New Path for Business Leaders (11:27)
ServiceNow is moving in a direction where it doesn’t have any direct competition. McDermott came into his role at ServiceNow with experience that gave him a perspective to go beyond what is already being done in the tech field. He’s been strategic about the acquisitions and hiring decisions the company has made. With each step over his years at ServiceNow, McDermott has been establishing his credibility in working toward doing things that other companies hadn’t even tried yet.
Advancing the C-Suite (14:15)
The company’s growth rates made a major jump from last year to this year. Last year, McDermott talked about the need to penetrate the C-suite with higher awareness. GenAI, Tony suggests, has played a major role in this, especially with how it has been optimized as a productivity tool. Now, C-suites are determining their GenAI strategies and how to harness the power of this technology.
Additionally, Tom notes that the size and scope of their deals is significant. This has been demonstrated by the customer presence at Knowledge24, backing up the validity of ServiceNow’s robust technology. C-level titles are now implementing use cases across their organizations.
A Fresh Outlook (16:03)
Bob recalls hearing McDermott speak years ago and one of his big lines was “Complacency is a thief…I will not let anyone steal your dreams.” Jumping into ServiceNow, McDermott’s experience in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market and connections in big corporations enabled him to enter his position with a different mindset: The limits companies see the leader see are often self-imposed. McDermott has burned down an old way of thinking; rather than thinking “I can’t” as a tech vendor competing with other tech vendors, collaborate with them and work together with partners.
With McDermott at ServiceNow, the company is leading with fresh technology, a fresh outlook, and a fresh way of going about the partners ecosystem. By being open to working with partners, as long as the combination is better for customers, ServiceNow has been able to deliver incredible growth rates.
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